Day 35: Bus 1

[misterprince.livejournal.com]

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

Comments

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

That was an interesting person to have walk up to him out of the blue. Roland recognized him, of course; he recognized both the look at the scent, even if the younger man's power had been diminished since the night before. Thankfully he and the others hadn't been called in to try to put a stop to it; between three demons, even at a weaker level, they could do a decent amount of damage, and the battle would end only when one side was too destroyed to continue. When he and the Embryon AI went after someone with that much power, it was to the death.

But that wasn't really at issue for the moment. Likely the young man- he didn't look much past his mid-twenties, if that- was disoriented and, if his treatment as anything like Roland's, feeling a bit isolated. Understandable; after a light show like that, anyone would feel a little wary about him. ...and for the sake of ego, Roland contented himself that while he couldn't match it, Indra could have quiet easily, if all the inhibitions were removed.

Regardless, the pale man offered a smile and indicated for the newcomer to sit down. "Sounds like you made it through last night all right. Have a seat; my name's Roland."

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

It looked like he had picked out the right person, seeing how the man was immediately willing to hear him out, or at least have his company. Peter gave a small smile despite all the concerns running through his head about Sylar and took the seat, nodding thankfully to the older man.

"Hey, Roland. I'm Peter. And yeah, I made it through, but I'm still not all that sure what happened..." He pulled a hand up to his head, hoping that it would stop aching soon. It felt like it had been strained and pushed in ways that it shouldn't have, and he got the feeling that had something to do with the way he had resisted "orders" last night.

Still, it was all so fuzzy that it was hard to piece everything together. He'd have to hope that some of the other patients would help him out with that, though he imagined it would be harder to approach anyone he had dealt with directly. This was a good start. "So, it sounds like you're used to all this," he remarked.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

"I've got some experience with similar situations. It happens to a lot of people. Taken out of their rooms, given some measure of their power back, then set to guard certain rooms... I imagine that was what you were going through?" Roland sounded nothing if not sympathetic; he knew it had to be rough to not only go through something like that, but also to be in one's own appearance, unable to deny what had happened. Granted, Peter hadn't exactly been the worst when it came to that, but some people were touchy about being countermanded.

...at least they hadn't been eaten?

Still, the way that Peter was rubbing at his head and squinting his eyes betrayed that something was off, if only a headache, and considering what he'd gone through, that might or might not be a bad thing. So, after a split-second pause, he added, "And you're not looking so good, by the way. Sure you're all right?"

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that was pretty much it," Peter agreed. Though he hadn't stayed to his assigned area, in the end. Seeing Sylar had managed to pull him out of the institute's sway, if not completely. Though he almost wished that hadn't happened, if it would have meant that Sylar wasn't here. Then again, if he had stayed on that other field, there was a good chance he would have ended up hurting people.

He was relieved that the other man was so understanding, though, and it made Peter warm up to Roland right from the start. The fact that so many of the patients here were so nice made him feel that much worse about the fact that he'd been ready to attack them last night. Though he had to remind himself that if Sylar was here, there might be others like him around as well. The hard part was picking them out...

At Roland's question, Peter dropped his hand away from his head and managed a strained smile. "Yeah. My head's just killing me..." He wondered if head pain was normal after being brainwashed, though it wasn't like he had any way to find out.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

"I imagine that that wasn't because of any hard knocks?" Roland himself had never experienced pains that weren't inflicted on him, and those hadn't been very many at all during his time in the Institute. He assumed that it was possible that Peter was suffering from power overload or something, but still, he had to ask and make sure. Especially since this was one time where he got to see someone else who'd gone through something similar and not reacted quite the same as others might have. Namely, Peter had seemed to react different from the average patient, doing his own deal- or so Roland had guessed from the flashes of light and such. So why not make sure?

Roland didn't bother eating his packed food, instead focusing more on the person with him- Roland already knew that there was no point in eating something without sufficient data to provide nourishment. Why worry about that, then, when there was something else that could be more important was presenting itself? "Also, unless my eyes deceived me, you went over the wall and out of your room. I've never heard of that happening before."

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

"No, it wasn't that," Peter quickly responded, though his hand was soon returning to clutch at his head again. It was bad enough that it was making his vision blur, and he really wished he could have just stayed in bed at this point. But he needed to find Claire, and he also needed to figure out just what Sylar's role was in all of this. Either way, he was certain he hadn't hit his head last night - he'd barely been injured, other than some light burns and his own self-inflicted wound, all of which had healed without a problem.

This was something else, and as Roland brought up the way he had abandoned his post, Peter glanced up again, eyes widening slightly. "Really?" He hadn't known that it had been such a rare event for someone to do that, though he could see how it went against the whole idea of brainwashing. He figured there was no harm in explaining, though, even if he was having a difficult time following his own thought process from the night before. "I saw someone from my world, someone who's really dangerous. I had to stop him." Everything else had taken a backseat to that, and even though he was suffering for it now, he knew it had been the right thing to do.

[intoindra.livejournal.com]

Now that was interesting. Peter had seen someone he knew as a threat, someone he had to stop, and he had? If that was enough to stop someone from their brainwashing... perhaps it was an effect of perceived duty? Something that was held to be more important than what the Institute convinced the person was 'right' could break the brainwashing? Interesting, but Roland felt a brief pang of despair; nothing was more important to Indra than food. Which meant that what worked for Peter likely wouldn't work for Roland.

...not that he'd admit that was the thought going through his brain, anyway. Instead he inclined his head, letting his mind digest all the information he was getting. "First, you might want to ask a nurse for some tylenol if it's getting worse. And second... that's good to know. How did the light show end?"

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

Would they actually give him some medication? Peter hadn't considered that, even though it made sense. They were kept on pretty short leashes, after all, and the nurses didn't seem to respond to much of anything, instead just herding them from place to place. Though this trip at least showed that they were allowed some freedom, even though he got the feeling that it was just a larger cage they were being put in.

"I'll try that, thanks. And... it turned out all right, I guess. I can't believe that he's even here, but I was able to stop him from hurting anyone too badly." Claire had been forced to deal with the trauma of dying, but Peter knew that she was strong enough to handle that sort of thing. He still wanted to find her today, though, since there was a good chance Sylar would be looking out for both of them.

At least Sylar had been helpful in one way: now Peter knew that Claire's blood (and his blood, when he had his abilities) had the power to heal others. It wouldn't do them much good here, but it was still valuable information.

It was around that point that the buses stopped, and Peter glanced around as the other patients started to get out of their seats. "Well, it was nice talking to you," he said to Roland with a half smile. With that, he stood up and started toward the front of the bus.